How do you build a range for villain when they take such odd lines preflop. In this case villain was the second person to call UTG's open and he then flats my 5x squeeze from the SB.


PokerStars - €0.02 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 201 BB (VPIP: 15.38, PFR: 5.13, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 39)
Hero (SB): 119 BB
BB: 354 BB (VPIP: 42.86, PFR: 28.57, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 7)
UTG: 93.5 BB (VPIP: 33.33, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 3)
MP: 144 BB (VPIP: 100.00, PFR: 50.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 2)
CO: 98 BB (VPIP: -, PFR: -, 3Bet Preflop: -, Hands: 1)

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has A♠ J♠

UTG raises to 3 BB, MP calls 3 BB, CO calls 3 BB, fold, Hero raises to 15 BB, fold, fold, fold, CO calls 12 BB

Flop: (37 BB, 2 players) 8♠ 9♥ T♥
Hero bets 11 BB, CO raises to 68 BB, Hero raises to 104 BB and is all-in, CO calls 15 BB and is all-in

Turn: (203 BB, 2 players) A♣

River: (203 BB, 2 players) 7♠

Hero shows A♠ J♠ (Straight, Jack High)
(Pre 58%, Flop 79%, Turn 93%)
CO shows Q♦ K♦ (High Card, Ace)
(Pre 42%, Flop 21%, Turn 7%)
Hero wins 193 BB


I want to put this in flopzilla because at first when I faced his really weird re-raise size on the flop I thought I was crushed, but then when I ran through some of the possibilities villain may have been doing this with I figured I have had more equity than I have initially thought (8 straight cards, BDFD and three aces if he has JJ QQ or KK and three jacks if he had A9s,A9s,ATs)

How do I build a range a range for villain preflop when such unorthodox action happens?

Unfortunately I just started playing on Pokerstars.ES so I don't have any hand history on this player.


Thank you and your thoughts are always much appreciated!

You don't build ranges for people like this on 2nl. You just get a good hand and stack them everytime. Make a note on them and when you see them at your table just stack them.
They don't have a range they just do weird things with no logic.

Originally Posted by EarnDAStack

How do I build a range a range for villain preflop when such unorthodox action happens?

I dont see, what is so unorthodox about it? It was a very large 3-bet and a very wet board, so it kind of make sense to just get it in on the flop, if you have a hand, you want to continue with. Also you bet fairly small on the flop, which might lead him to believe, he can get you to fold quite a lot.

Basically he is an unknown, so you just assign him hands, that it would make sense to flat call pre, and then call your 3-bet in position, once the other two players left dead money in the pot. He is getting a pretty good price and position, so I will say, he can probably have something like this:

88-JJ, 98s, T9s, JTs, QTs+, KJs+, ATs-AQs, AQo


He should mainly continue with suited, connected hands and pairs. Hands that can basically bust an overpair, if they hit. AK, QQ+ should 3-bet preflop, so these are unlikely. Of course we dont know anything about this player, but he did actually have one of these sort of reasonable hands, so nothing to strange going on here.

The board actually hit his range much better than yours, so this would be kind of a tough spot, if you had a hand like AA, KK, AK or AQ, which did not connect at all. So overall you are going to do a fair bit of check-folding here. However when you flopped an OESD, there is not much else to do than just get it in, given how big this pot already is.

Originally Posted by fundiver199

I dont see, what is so unorthodox about it? It was a very large 3-bet and a very wet board, so it kind of make sense to just get it in on the flop, if you have a hand, you want to continue with. Also you bet fairly small on the flop, which might lead him to believe, he can get you to fold quite a lot.

Basically he is an unknown, so you just assign him hands, that it would make sense to flat call pre, and then call your 3-bet in position, once the other two players left dead money in the pot. He is getting a pretty good price and position, so I will say, he can probably have something like this:

88-JJ, 98s, T9s, JTs, QTs+, KJs+, ATs-AQs, AQo


He should mainly continue with suited, connected hands and pairs. Hands that can basically bust an overpair, if they hit. AK, QQ+ should 3-bet preflop, so these are unlikely. Of course we dont know anything about this player, but he did actually have one of these sort of reasonable hands, so nothing to strange going on here.

The board actually hit his range much better than yours, so this would be kind of a tough spot, if you had a hand like AA, KK, AK or AQ, which did not connect at all. So overall you are going to do a fair bit of check-folding here. However when you flopped an OESD, there is not much else to do than just get it in, given how big this pot already is.

Thank you for your response Fundiver, I had to be honest I had hoped you might find your way to my post

I think part of my difficulties with coming up for a hand range for villain in this situation might be my own short comings at understanding what hands would be calling a three bet in a situation like this one (I struggled to figure out what wouldn't 3 bet IP or 4 bet jam after my 3 bet but hands like 88-JJ, 98s, T9s, JTs, QTs+, KJs+, ATs-AQs, AQo as you said before make quite a bit of sense. I don't think I initially would have included 89s 9Ts or QTs but I would imagine again that's due to my lack of understanding on 3 bet calling ranges.

Once we got to cards up and I saw KQs I understood how he could end up there with a hand like that but I couldn't find many other hands that I wouldn't have 3 bet or folded (again my lack of fundamentals) so I didn't think he was too out of line. I just don't know what I would have done in his position (probably folded to the 3 bet to be honest)

I'm going to come back to your comment a few more times today to see if I can absorb more from it, If I have any more questions do you mind if I ask you in this thread Fundiver?

Thanks again!

Just for the record I am not saying, that its theoretically correct to call the initial raise and then call the 3-bet with all these hands. But you are playing 2NL, and the average player is certainly seeing a few more flops, than what solvers etc. might say, he should. The main point is, you should expect to see some kind of reasonable hand. Not a premium, but not junk either. I should probably have included hands like 66-77 as well.

In theory KQs should have folded or 3-bet, when the action first got to him, and as played folded to your 3-bet. Its actually worse to continue with KQs than some of the lower suited connectors, because its dominated by AK and AQ. But again its 2NL, and for a lot of players KQs is just to pretty to fold, especially getting a good price and position.